


I Realize You're Brooding and Self-Abandoning, But I Kinda Wanna Make Everybody Happy

by soul_droid



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, And we're just gonna let him do it, Because I'm as imaginative as possible, But that one takes a while, Defrosting Ice Queen, Dunno why I felt the need to tell you about that, Eleanor's religious but that's not really surprising and she doesn't bring it up much so hey, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Happy Ending, Hopefully your tears will distract you from the nudity, One of the characters is blocking out traumatizing memories, Perfectly PG nude scene somehow, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Zaveid is in here and he says yeet once
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-30 13:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12109644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soul_droid/pseuds/soul_droid
Summary: EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION, THERE ARE SPOILERS ABOUND BECAUSE I LIKE TO WEAVE IN-CANON ELEMENTS TO AUs!The short title is: You Deserve A Smile, Velvet CroweEleanor Hume (Read: The Good Girl) goes on a bit of a rocky, semi-life-changing adventure with Velvet Crowe (Read: Little Prickly, To Be Honest).And then there's Magilou doing... Magilou things is honestly the best way I can describe it. Get ready for a ride full of smartassing, crazy motorcycle jumps, and Eleanor wearing down the Velvet's angry barriers (because Eleanor is an unstoppable force of purity, no matter how annoying that can be).Or, I suppose you could just go read the "All Girls Want Bad Boys" article on TV Tropes, make it gay in your brain, and watch that scene where Velvet yells at Eleanor on Titania, but at least if you read this, you'll get new dialogue, so hey.





	1. I Think We're Gonna Get Along Great

Eleanor looked up at the front of the classroom, and mused to herself, ‘ _Huh... This doesn’t usually happen. I suppose except for in those badly written romance anime, but still._ ’ Staring back at her, and as a matter of fact, everybody else, was a girl. She had the longest hair Eleanor had seen since principal Lailah, and this girl’s was possibly longer. But more than that, the girl looked like she was barely there. Barely alive, to be quite honest. Oh, she was healthy-looking enough, but...

“Would you like to tell everyone about yourself?” The instructor Zaveid asked

“My name’s Velvet. Where do I sit?” Zaveid chucked at the frankness, and looked around at the few empty seats in the room.

“Eenie, meenie, miney—YEET!” Just when Eleanor thought Zaveid was gonna be a normal person for once in his calls-into-question-the-concept-of-a-god existence, he threw a ball of paper at the west wall, and impressively enough, it did manage to bounce off of the completely opposite wall, before landing on the ground. "That looks like... yeah, it’s like yea wide from Eleanor’s desk, congratulations, that’s where you sit, I hope you get along, because you know, yeah, stuff and things.” And with said “stuff” and indeed “things”, Velvet walked over to her new desk next to Eleanor, proceeded to sit right down... and take out none of her supplies, and stare blankly at the board as Zaveid spoke. At the end of class, as everyone stood up to leave, Eleanor took the time to turn to Velvet, and introduce herself.

“Hello, Velvet! My name is Eleanor Hume! I hope we can have a great year together!”

... Velvet stared at Eleanor in vague disbelief ‘ _Is this girl serious? Did she...? Did she actually just...?_ ’ “... Yep.” She replies, picking up her bag, and making for the door.

“S-so, I don’t think I caught your last name earlier.” Ms. Hume mentions, walking along with Velvet out of the room and into the crowded hallway.

“You didn’t.”

“Oh... Do you mind if I ask?”

“Seems like I would have said it if I didn’t.”

“I see...” Ellen was starting to run out of ideas as they neared the spiraling stairwell that led to the first level of the school “Ah! Would you like someone to show you around the school?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, then... B-but—” Then Eleanor witnessed a sight she wouldn’t forget for, well, ever. This girl looked over the railing on the stairwell, saw very few people down there... And jumped. Nearly having a heart attack, the redhead ran right up to the railing and looked over to see the new girl coming out of a roll on the flat landing between staircases, and walking away from a crowd that was clearly as in shock as her.

 

\--

 

See, the theory was that at lunch, people would stop trying to talk with her. Stop annoying her. She was wrong. Velvet stared off into the distance as some kid with a bushy ponytail talked to her about that jump she did earlier to get away from Elewhatever.

“That. Was. Amazing! I mean, the fact that you did it was one thing, but the form was really quite excellent! Everything kept tightly close to your center of mass; smoothly tucking into the roll at the end— I can tell you’re a girl who knows her own body very well!” This earned a warning look from Velvet, as she heard another voice inform her that

“That didn’t come out the way he meant it.” She looked up to see some tall fuckin’ kid with blond hair coming to sit down at their table. “He just means you’re very in tune with yourself, and don’t waste movements. He’s probably gonna ask if you’re a marti--”

“Are you a martial artist?”

“See? The name’s Eizen, by the way.” This Eizen person reached over to shake Velvet’s hand, and Velvet stared.

“Your elbow’s in your mashed potatoes.” She noted

Whipping his head to look down, he noted that Velvet was telling the truth “Ah, dammit!” As Eizen cleaned himself off, Velvet turned her attention toward Rokurou

“Yeah, I suppose I am a bit of a fighter. Why?”

Rokurou grinned to himself. “I’d like to see a demonstration sometime! My name’s Rokurou Rangetsu! I get the feeling we’re gonna get along really well!

Finishing the job of cleaning himself as well as one could, Eizen turned his attention to the conversation again. “Of course that means having to deal with Magilou.”

Raising an eyebrow, she asks “Magilou?”

“An aspiring magician, and other things nobody can truly tell. She has a talking doll called Bienfu, and it just gets weirder from there.”

“She keeps like a Tickle-Me Elmo with her?”

“Kinda, but only if Elmo had an actual will of his own.”

“... What.”

Rokurou notes “You’ll probably meet her during the assembly tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Because Magilou.”

“... Look, I’m sure that makes sense in your world, but in mine, I want you both to leave me alone.”

“Oooh, I like this one! Are we still on for a little spar later?”

“Sure— I mean that’s not what you said, but sure, now go.”

 

\--

 

_Eleanor stared at the teacher with disbelief in her eyes. “V... Velvet... Crowe?”_

_“Yep.” Zaveid confirmed, acting serious for just this little while as he graded papers_

_“F... From the Aball incident?”_

_“That’s right. She and her little brother were the only survivors. Well, they say there was a church official from the village who was out at the time, but now we’re getting into semantics. Anyway, I wouldn’t take any of her actions too personally. She just doesn’t really feel it right now. Frankly the day she walked into the principal’s office and started talking about enrollment, we were all a little surprised.”_

_“I see... You putting her right next to me... that wasn’t random, was it?”_

_Giving a sly smile “Of course it was! What, you think I’m some sort of warlock who controlled the wind to make the paper ball land where it did?”_

_“And coincidentally moved Cheria to a different seat a week ago, leaving that one wide open? Something like that, yes.”_

 

Of course, that little interaction was itself hours ago, though she’d be hard-pressed to forget it happening. It was just late last year. Nobody knows properly what happened, but in a single night, the residents of the village of Aball all died in a fire, with only two survivors: A girl named Velvet Cowe, and her little brother, Laphicet. As Eleanor walked home, she looked up, and noticed Velvet walking in the same direction just about a half a block in front of her. Coming up on the elementary school, Velvet took a turn in its direction. At that moment, Eleanor decided to stop and wait. ‘ _Why am I doing this? She doesn’t want to talk to me._ ’ She asked herself this question over and over for a strangely long amount of time, before a group of kids came out of the front doors. Sticking out and towering above them was Velvet Crowe, walking hand-in-hand with a little boy who was beaming from ear-to-ear, chatting away about the day’s events.

“And then, and then, and then,” He repeated out of sheer excitement “Genis showed me his rhinoceros beetle! It was so awesome! It went all wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!”

That was when the impossible happened. Velvet smiled. “That’s great, Laphi.”

“Can Genis and Elize com over sometime?”

“I don’t know. We’ll give it some time, okay?”

“But Velvet!”

“I didn’t say ‘no’. Just not now.”

“Okay!”

And then, Velvet’s gaze shifted. Her smile vanished. Then it came back. Well, not the same smile. The other one was warm, amused, loving, if slightly exhausted. This one was... This one was evil. “Tell ya what, Laphi. I’ll meet you over at the bike, okay? I have something I need to do back at school.”

“Got it!”

And Velvet walked toward the high school building. Still, she was a good distance from Eleanor, and besides, nobody would see her behind the tree, so it was all good. As Velvet faded from view, the younger girl started walking home again, not quite knowing what to feel about that display of love and affection. “I mean, it was a bit jarring, really.”

“I know, right?” Said... someone... placing their arm on... Eleanor’s shoulder? What was that? Who was that? Why was that? She looked over to see Velvet leaning on her, and she screamed in shock “Wow, I actually thought we were at the disco from that panic.”

“D-don’t scare me like that!”

“Don’t spy on me like that.”

“I—I just...” And then her calm returned. And the memory of who she was talking to followed suit.

“Hey, why are you looking at me like--?... Oh, I get it. You asked one of the teachers, didn’t you? I know that look. The ‘oh, what a poor girl’ look, right?”

“I... You...”

“Don’t know what to say? Then don’t say anything. That’s a rule I generally live by. But why are you so interested in me?”

“I... don’t... know... You were acting so mysterious!”

“So, you’re the know-it-all type, huh? Shoulda known. Nobody actually goes by ‘Eleanor’ unless they’re _that_ girl. Otherwise they’re Ellen, or the like. Well, Eleanor Hume...” She walks to her front, and stands at a very uncomfortably close distance. “I don’t need your pity. And I don’t want it.” And that was the end of her meeting with Velvet Crowe.

 

\--

 

The next day wasn’t much better. Velvet sat down next to Eleanor, and handed her a piece of paper. On it, it said “Egg whites, a bagel, kale, and orange juice.” She stared at it, unable to truly understand what was in front of her.

“It’s what I had for breakfast this morning. You know, since you wanna know everything about me.”

And that was when this girl managed to get Eleanor just a little bit mad. But she decided to take this one on the chin. Seemingly satisfied, Velvet paid attention to the teacher again.

 

\--

 

At Heavenly Steppes High School, there was held an assembly to talk about the current state of affairs within the school itself, and to wish school sports teams good luck as they prepared for games coming up. The problem here was that Eleanor was a bit late finishing up with helping a classmate with their work, so a lot of the seats were taken. Except, well the one next to Velvet. As she sat down, she got a bit of a look from Velvet. “And here she is.”

“This was the only empty seat!”

“I genuinely doubt that.”

“J—Y--...!” ‘ _Don’t, Eleanor! Don’t!_ ’ And so, the assembly started. The principal pranced into the middle of the gymnasium, and grabbed a microphone

“Heeeellloooooooo, Heavenly Steppes High! Once again, it’s time for our state of the _school_ ion address!” Groan from the entire student body “I see we’re all feeling peppy and ready! Good! Now, our first bit of news for all of you is something I was asked by a student to announce; how exciting! Rokurou Rangetsu has officially issued an open challenge to anyone in the student body who wishes to fight him! He’ll be waiting in the pit, whatever that means!” A staff member came over, one Raine Sage, and whispered something in her ear “Hm? Oh, that is correct!” Turning toward the students again, she mentions “Students, there is no fighting at school, so if you should decide to take up Mr. Rangetsu on his challenge, please do so after 3:30 PM, as the school day is officially over!” Raine slapped her palm against her forehead and went to sit down. “Our next order of business—”

“Is magical!” Said a voice from over the speakers

“I should hope so—wait, what?”

“To paraphrase it... MAGIKAZAM!!” And from the ceiling rafters came Magillanica Lou Mayvin riding a giant crescent moon prop that swung back and forth like a pendulum “It is I, Magilou Mayvin! Here to remind all of you scrubs, bubs, and lubs that later this month, at the HS High dance, Magilou’s Menagerie will be putting on the performance of your lifetimes! There will be champagne, cocaine, gasoline, and most things inbetween!”

“Miss Mayvin, I would like to confirm that there will be no champagne, or cocaine.”

“No, but there will be a giraffe!”

“I believe nobody in this auditorium trusts you with a giraffe after last year’s talent show.”

“But that was the combination of a giraffe, AND cocaine!”

“I sincerely hope you‘re kidding, but we simply must move on, as there are only so many hours in a day.”

 

\--

 

As they all left the auditorium, Rokurou and Eizen caught up with Velvet, walking more coincidentally than anything else, next to Eleanor

“Hey, Velvs!” Rokurou began “Did you hear about my challenge?”

“Pretty hard not to.”

“And it was irresponsible and reckless!” Eleanor mentioned

“C’mon, Ellie!”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I’ve heard a thing or two about you. Heard you can actually handle your own in a confrontation—now that’s something I’d like to see! Ms. Church-Every-Week in a scuffle!”

“My religious affiliation has nothing to do with this.”

Eizen decides to cut in “I’m more concerned about what Magilou’s got planned for us.”

“Us?” Velvet asks

“Me and Rokurou. We’re the ones she’s usually talking about when she says ‘Magilou’s Menagerie.”

“That giraffe was on cocaine.” Rokurou supplies “Strange thing is, it wasn’t Magilou who did it. She just picked it up like that.”

Eizen finally asks “Where the hell’d she get a giraffe...?”

“God, help me.” Eleanor says out of habit.

“Speakin’ of that crap she was spewing, do you have a date, Eleanor? Pretty sure you’re the girl everybody’s gonna be askin’!”

“She’s the girl everybody’s always asking.”

“I’m not in the mood, and I dread this every year. It’s like a never-ending infomercial for penis, and it gets old quickly! Boys never take into consideration the feelings of the girls they’re blatantly harassing! Isn’t that right, Velvet?”

“...”

“Velvet?” Looking next to her, she understood why there was no response. Velvet probably couldn’t hear her on account of not being there, because that’ll kinda do it.

 

\--

 

Later that day, Eleanor found herself in chemistry, being partnered up with Velvet of all people. For the first bit, Ms. Crowe managed to not bring up any past events between the two of them, but after a bit, El had to break the silence

“Why did you just walk away?”

“...?”

“We were talking to you!”

“...?”

“After the assembly!”

“... I had classes to get to. Besides, you and Rokurou were talking about something, I figured I had no part in the conversation. Now, we have a bit of a packet we could and should be getting to, if you’d like to focus on classwork instead of who’s going with who to the prom, or other things nobody’s gonna give a damn about after they grab their diplomas.”

“Oh, as if you care about work! You sit there in history every day, and don’t do anything!”

“‘Every day’ is a bit of an exaggeration, considering I only just got here yesterday. Besides, take a look at my transcripts. My grade’s good enough in history that even if I fail this next quarter, I’m still gonna pass. And since nobody fucking uses history in everyday life, I figure I’ll take that time to think about things I actually care about.”

“That is so irresponsible! What would your little brother think?”

“... You are awfully presumptuous, aren’t you?”

“Wh... what?”

“You think you have the right to know my past, you think you have the right to know why I do whatever I do, and you think you have to right to talk to me about my brother, and stuff you don’t know a damn thing about. I guess that’s what I get for dealing with a know-it-all.”

“Th... Th... That’s not true!”

“And what exactly would knowing about my past do for you, if you aren’t a know-it-all? Better yet, now that you know, what happens?”

And Eleanor froze. It was years ago. Over a decade ago, as a matter of fact. Why couldn’t she talk about it? Why couldn’t she just reach out, and say ‘I know your pain’ to this girl? The pain of losing everything you had in life.

“That’s about what I thought. Now, are we gonna work, or are we gonna fail?”

 

\--

 

BONUS SKIT - "Does it even have sides?"

 

ROKUROU: Does anybody else feel like they're really far to the left?

EIZEN: What, you mean like a political thing?

MAGILOU: No, I can feel it. I'm pretty sure I'm closer to the left of the world than I used to be.

EIZEN: What the hell is 'the left of the world'?

MAGILOU: I dunno, but I'm getting close to it.

LAPHICET: I'm pretty sure Rokurou is just making light of the fact that the alignment of the story was changed from center to left.

ROKUROU: No... No, that's not it, I think Magilou's actually kinda got it here.

VELVET: What the hell is wrong with you people?

ELEANOR: But the world is a sphere!

VELVET: Don't indulge them!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh. Funny thing about this story? It was supposed to be a oneshot. That's a skill I lost a long time ago, but I'll get it back eventually...
> 
> Anyway, at the heart of this story is improvisational writing, and at the part I'm at, it's lookin' like I'm gonna have to change the pairing to Magiveleanor, but we'll see how that unfolds.
> 
> Lastly, hope ya liked my pointless Panic! At the Disco references, because I do more stuff like that in the future.


	2. There's a Joke About Burning Passions of Friendship in Here...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleanor gets egg on her face.

“Hey, Eleanor.” She heard as she moved toward the school exit. Turning around, she realized it was Eizen.

“Um, yes, Eizen?”

“You’re a girl, so I figured you could help me with this. My little sister’s birthday is coming up, and I wanna get her something special. I just... I’m having trouble thinking of anything, you know?”

“What does me being a girl have to do with this?”

“Well, it’s either ask you, or ask Rokurou and the rest of the Van Eltia guys.” She had to take a bit to remind herself about the Van Eltia arcade where Eizen met some of his closer friends. That was years ago, but they all kept in contact, and the word ‘testosterone’ was only the beginning of describing their atmosphere.

“... I see.”

“Exactly. And she’s so secretive and quiet, it’s hard to really read her sometimes.”

“Well... I know those little nor dolls are popular with a lot of girls in the elementary school. I tutor a boy there named Sorey, and he keeps talking about how the girls will show up with these dolls in weird hats, and that they actually kinda creep him out.”

“Sorey? He’s one of my sister’s friends, actually. Huh. Anyway, Nor dolls, eh? I’ll have to look into that. Thanks. Oh, and if you want any help keeping those guys off you, just ask.”

 

\--

 

They hadn’t spoken in days. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Here she was, at Sorey’s house, talking him through his math homework, and all the while, she had another little boy peering at their work. His name was Laphicet. Laphicet was not the problem. The problem was his older sister, sitting on the couch behind him. Even without talking to her, the atmosphere was tense. Tense enough for Sorey to notice.

“Are you okay, Eleanor?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, of course! Anyway, let me take a bit to look at your work.” Scanning over it, she began to smile. “This looks all good!”

“Hah! Hear that, Mikleo? I’ll pass you in math by the end of the month, and THEN we’ll see who’s the Shepherd!”

“The Shepherd?”

“Ah, it’s just a little competition we got goin’ on. The Shepherd is the one who leads the other in the right direction, and it pretty much depends on our math grades.”

“Why math?”

“Cause, um, we both kinda suck at it...”

About to comment on the strange nature of this competition, she noticed Laphicet looking up at Velvet with a curious expression on his face. Looking over at her, she saw Velvet, both eyes tightly shut, her brow furrowed, and fists clenched at the ends of her crossed arms, to say nothing of her elevated shoulders.

“Velvet?” He asked

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Laphi. I am.”

“... Okay... Ms. Eleanor? Is Sorey done with his homework?”

“I’d say so, yes.”

“Cool! Then can we play?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Sweet!” Sorey responded, and ran off with Laphicet to his room upstairs. Leaving Eleanor. Alone. With Velvet.

Silence.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

‘ _This is ridiculous!_ ’ She turned toward Velvet. She hadn’t moved. She looked at her phone. It had been _five minutes_. “...” She took in the sight before her ‘ _Maybe start by complimenting her outfit? That’s a nice skirt she has on! Even if it’s a little ripped—thank God for the cargo pants, actually, now that I’m thinking about it. Even if those are_ also _a little ripped. Everything on her is ripped, isn’t it? Speaking of being ripped, I wonder what her muscles look lik—STOP!_ ’

“... You gonna ask why I’m here?”

“No, I don’t need to know everything!”

“That’d be more convincing if I didn’t see you holding the question back on your tongue.”

“Oh, shut. UP!” Velvet recoiled in surprise. And strangely enough, her shoulders loosened a bit. “I... I’m sorry. I realize you must be in a lot of pain...” Velvet’s shoulders tensed again.

“... I don’t like to let Laphicet out of my sight.”

“Hm?”

“Why I’m here. I like to keep him where I know he’s safe at all times. That’s why I chose this school. I knew it was only a block away from the elementary school, so I could come get him if anything happened.”

“I see... That’s very noble of you.”

“Well, Laphi doesn’t think that. He thinks it’s overbearing. You should hear him complain about me treating him like a child. He _is_ a child.”

Eleanor giggled “He sounds like a little girl I tutor. Her name is Kamoana, and she has some rather interesting ideas about maturity. She’ll grow out of it, though.”

“You tutor somebody else?”

“Yes, I do. Actually, I don’t have much time here before I have to get going to her house, actually.”

“And when do you go from Eleanor the honor student to Eleanor the girl?”

“They’re the same person.”

“No, they’re not. You can’t be entirely devoted to other people; that just doesn’t make sense. There must be something you’d like to do.”

“Now, who’s prying?”

“I’ve got a long way to go before I catch up with you.”

“Hmph.” And Eleanor’s stomach grumbles.

“You hungry? I can fix you something to eat.”

“I’m a seventeen year-old girl, I can make my own food.” She says, going to the kitchen, and surveying the available ingredients. Deciding to pull out some eggs, and some of the seasonings, she’d make herself something quick before she had to be on her way.

 

As the eggs began forming into a definite shape, she realized it had been somewhere around five more minutes without a single word between the two of them. She began thinking about the Aball tragedy. Then about her own experience. ‘ _Just tell her. Let a suffering girl know she’s not alone. That’s all you wanted back then, so... Why. Can’t. You. TALK?!_ ’ She thinks, slamming the spatula down in frustration... Onto the handle of the pan. Which was facing outward, toward the floor. Then physics takes place, as if in slow motion. Step 1: Drink in the fact that something is flying at your face. Step 2: Make mistakes. Realize that the thing flying at you is in fact extremely hot eggs. Step 3: Realize that you should step out of the way. Step 4: Conclude that step 3 should have been step 2, because this is very, _VERY HOT!!_ And Eleanor begins screaming to high heaven as the eggs burn her face. Within what must have been a second, Velvet was at her side, and that object of comparison made Eleanor realize she was indeed on the floor.

Velvet wiped the eggs away from her, and placed a bag of frozen vegetables on her face, as Eleanor lets it sink in that she seemed to have missed a lot of what Velvet did, because she never remembered the freezer door opening, much less anybody grabbing anything from it. Velvet began stroking her hair, and speaking to her. “Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay! You’ll be fine, just hold this here, and I’ll be right back!”

 

Minutes had passed, and Eleanor had officially stopped screaming. After telling the boys everything was all right, they went back upstairs, as Velvet sat in front of Eleanor with medical supplies from her trunk sprawled out over the table. “How are you? Does it still burn as bad?”

“Not as long as I keep these vegetables over my face.”

“Well, those are gonna thaw soon; just hold on and let me get you another pack.” She got up and walked toward the kitchen.

“Thank you. For everything.”

“It’s fine.”

“And I’m sorry.”

“Hm?”

“I had you pegged as an uncaring jerk. I realize that I was wrong. You’re a good person, and a loving sister.”

“... Don’t go that far, okay? All that ‘good person’ stuff.”

“No, it’s true... Velvet?”

“Hm?”

“I realize why it is you behave the way you do, but... What about Laphicet? Why is he so happy?”

“... Let’s go outside, okay?” She says, walking to Eleanor with an actual ice pack.

 

\--

 

Sitting on the swing set behind Sorey’s house, Velvet begins. “... Aball went up in flames. The blaze captured everybody in the village, and I barely made it out alive... And Laphi? The psychologist theorizes he just blocked it out... That there’s some record of the event in his subconscious, but... the rest of his brain I guess just... Actively refuses to access it. To this day, he has no idea there was a such thing as ‘the Aball Tragedy’.”

“Oh my goodness.” ‘ _But, can it... Can it really happen that fast?_ ’

“And I’d prefer to keep it that way. The future is bright for those with hope, Eleanor, and I’m gonna make sure his still holds something. Another reason I chose this school. The curriculum is one of the best in the country. And also within my price range.”

“Wait... Speaking of your price range... I realize this more prying on my part, but... How do you afford anything?”

“I have a job. It doesn’t pay much, but after a lot of saving up, I was able to afford a good enough place, and a school to put him in.”

“... So, when do _you_ find time for yourself?”

“... Is your face still burning? You should probably tell that Kamoana girl you won’t be able to make it to her place.”

“OH MY GOD, KAMOANA!!” She grabs her phone, looks at the time, and realizes it’s too late. “No, no, no! I missed the bus! I won’t be able to make it in time!”

“Seriously? Like that? With bandages and a burn?”

“Yes, like that! But it doesn’t matter anymore...”

Maybe it was how downtrodden she was. Maybe Velvet was just letting some residual emotion from their previous conversation lead her. But whatever the reason, she barely had time to think about it before she was on her feet, making an offer. “If you can give me directions, I can drive you there.”

“Seriously?! Thank you, Velvet, thank you so much! Let me just get my stuff, and say goodbye to Sorey!”

“Eleanor.” She began, as said girl started toward the house.

“Hm?” She asked, stopping in her tracks

“... Do you promise? Do you promise this place is safe? That Laphi is gonna be okay?”

“Of course! Sorey is a good boy!”

“Wow, I cannot even begin to count how many news reports begin with ‘he was such a good boy’, before they go on to detail how a kid killed somebody.”

“...”

“... Fine. Just get your stuff and let’s go.”

Eleanor was rather surprised that Velvet decided to trust her, but she wasn’t about to question good fortune.

 

\--

 

“So, when you told Laphicet to wait for you at the bike, you meant--”

And that was when Velvet effortlessly picked Eleanor up, and sat her on the motorcycle. “Hell yeah I did!” And Velvet had the evil grin on her face again. Why did she have the evil grin? What was worth evil-grinning about? “How about you show me those directions real quick, El?” Doing as she was asked, Eleanor turned her phone to Velvet with the maps page opened up. Taking a bit to study, she said “Oh, I know this place! This is like a stone’s throw away from the store where I work!” Sitting down in front of Eleanor, she started up the engine. “Don’t worry, we’ll be there real quick; I know where the cops are and aren’t looking.”

“What?!”

“Hold on ti~ght.”

 

\--

 

She wasn’t kidding about that whole “cops” thing. At one point, she took a shortcut ramp that led to them soaring, flying directly over a police car, onto another road. (“How did you know there would be space there for us to land between the cars?!” “I didn’t!”)  But the point was that she made it to Kamoana’s house, and they were fine. Well, except for one thing that made the whole day awkward: Kamoana. Oh, it started normal enough. Eleanor expected the question about the bandage around her right eye, sure.

“I had a bit of an accident, uh...” Oh God, please don’t let anybody know she was literally trying to cook eggs when she burned herself on the face, she’d never live it down.

“Some punk was trying to play fast and loose at the grocery store earlier and run off without paying.” Velvet liexplains (pronounced “likes-plain”, not “lee-explain”... This reminds me of the “perfalmost” celebration from Berseria, and I can almost feel Eizen telling me to stop) “Eleanor sprang right into action. He had a knife and got a hit in, but she stopped the jerk.”

Kamoana’s face lit up in awe. “Woooooowwwww! Eleanor, you’re amazing!”

“O-oh, it’s nothing special...” Says Eleanor. Soon, after introducing Velvet, she manages to get Kamoana to focus on her history work. For like three minutes—Kamoana has ADHD, you see, that’s why she needs a tutor. Looking up, she asks, “Ms. Velvet?”

“Just Velvet.”

“Are you Eleanor’s girlfriend?”

Eyes widen on both Velvet and Eleanor. Movement stops. The room decreases in size, and pollution permeates the air, making it difficult to breathe, because if it wasn’t that, then Velvet didn’t know WHAT it was. “...”

“...” It seemed Eleanor herself had nothing to say on the matter.

“...” And Kamoana herself was content to stare at her, waiting for an answer.

“...” Realizing this wasn’t going to go away, Velvet forced herself to speak. “N-no, I’m not. Where did you get that idea from?”

“Well, you drove Eleanor to my place, right?”

“Y-yes. So?”

“But why are you still here?”

“...” ‘ _I don’t know._ ’ “... I’m going to drive her home.”

“. . .”

“...”

“... Does she have to pay for gas?”

“No.”

“...”

“...” Fuck this kid. Velvet wasn’t gonna get any more stupid crushes on her friends. Not after the Niko affair. That was embarrassing... Not to mention Aball was a small village, and small towns and villages had a tendency to be very... Well... Let’s just say Velvet kept her sexuality to herself, and she did it for a very good reason.

“And Eleanor told me she was a therion.”

“A what?”

Eleanor closed her eyes, sighed, and said “A lesbian. I’m a lesbian, Kamoana.”

Oh, okay. Still, that didn’t matter. She wasn’t gonna just fall in love with the first lesbian she met.

 

\--

 

Walking out of Kamoana’s place, Eleanor was the first to speak. “You know, Velvet, now that I think about it, you don’t have to ride me—DRIVE ME, I meant _drive_ me back home!”

“I-it’s fine. Anyway, just show me the directions.”

“...” She stared at Velvet intently

“No, I’m not gonna drive like last time, we don’t have a time limit.” With no hesitation, Eleanor took out her phone and input the address. She then showed it to Velvet.

“... Oh hell. Why do you go to HS High?”

“It’s the best in the state.”

“But you live so far away. How much of your time is dedicated to travel?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Okay, no. First, we go pick up Laphi and bring him back home. Then, I can drop you off.”

“Three people on a motorcycle?”

“He sits in front, he’s small enough.” And with that, the two of them took their positions on the vehicle. Getting ready to put the key in the ignition, Velvet heard a sound, and if one weren’t paying attention, they may have missed it...

...

...

“WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Came the sound of Kamoana’s voice ringing out through the slowly darkening sky. Whipping her head over, she looked to Kamoana standing in the doorway, cheering her and Eleanor on

“Oh, shut up, this is how two people ride a motorcycle!”

“I wanna be the ring-bearer!”

“We just met, like a week ago!”

Velvet Crowe was having an argument with a ten year-old. So that was a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy! So, the idea here is to update weekly, in between drawing a comic that centers around a completely different story, and doing other drawings on deviantART to increase my popularity (and then there's work).
> 
> So if I fall behind the weekly schedule, you know why.
> 
> But hey, that's never gonna happen, right?
> 
> Oh, by the way, that was-- that was a Soul Punk reference. You know the part with the "step one, step two", and all that? Yeah. Go buy Soul Punk, I loved that album.


	3. Well, That's One Way to Bond With Someone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First comes the water.
> 
> Then comes the haircut.
> 
> And finally, story time.

Go back to Sorey’s place and pick up Laphicet: Check.

Drive him back home: Check.

Take off toward Eleanor’s place: Check.

Get a flat tire, slow down as much as you can, grab Eleanor, jump off the bike, and land in the grass, cradling Eleanor to shield her from the impact: Che—huh?

Yes, the two of them were currently rolling down a hill on the side of the road, and not showing signs of slowing down any time soon. Velvet was pretty sure she saw some idiot chuck a beer bottle out of the window of their car right before it happened, and the glass shards seemed to disagree with her tire. But she had no time to focus on that right now. She bounced on the ground over and over as they turned in the air. Soon, they stopped. And with that came new problems. Such as not being able to breathe. Why was she not able to breathe? Oh, the pain in her eyes and the dimmed sense of hearing actually probably answered the question well. They were in the water, weren’t they? After the fact made its way through her head, however, the next thing she registered was being on the water’s surface, even though neither of them actually swam there. ‘ _Oh no._ ’ She realized. They’d lost consciousness in the middle of the river, and were at the mercy of the currents.

“Eleanor.”

“...”

“Eleanor!” She said, shaking the girl who she’d somehow managed to keep a grip on, even through high impact, and being knocked out in the middle of a body of water.

“h-Huh?” She vocalized, slowly waking up. “What the?! WHERE ARE WE?!”

“I don’t know, but I need you. The currents are kind of strong here, so I could really use your help swimming over to the grass.”

With both of them paddling their legs, they managed to make it to land. Their clothes very heavy, and Velvet’s hair in particular dragging her down, they sat next to a tree. Something occurred to Eleanor. “What time is it, anyway?”

“If you think your phone survived the dip in the water, be my guest and check.”

“...”

Looking up at the night sky, she saw “Darkness. And even a few stars. That tells me two things: One, we were out for a while, because the sky was only barely dark when we left Kamoana’s place. So, at most, it’s about five in the morning.”

“Five in the morning, she says.”

“That sounded a lot more reassuring in my head, I’ll admit. But the second thing it tells me is that we’re pretty damn far from home.”

“What?”

“Stars. The city’s got too much light pollution to see them, but here they are. Conclusion: We’re stranded.”

“I’m gonna fucking strangle you.” And somehow, this elicited a laughing reaction from Velvet. “And what’s so funny?”

“I’ve never heard you swear like that before. I kinda like it.”

Drinking in the way “I kinda like it” sounded to her, she thought ‘ _... Speak, Eleanor. Speak. I can’t say anything. What’s going on?_ ’

“...” But then, Velvet’s cheeks turned a shade of pink visible even at night. “... S... So... Eleanor? We’re wet. And that’s not safe.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Right, but... Well... I’m just saying that we should... maybe... And we’d have to find some place safe first! But... The best thing to do... And I mean this purely from a health-conscious perspective, because otherwise we’ll get sick!”

“Just say it already.”

“... We need to take our clothes off.”

“...”

“...”And Velvet lifted up her left leg which was facing Eleanor, into a bent position, foot on the ground.

“... R... Right... I—I mean, I s-suppose you have a point... B-by the way...” She says, taking a pocket knife out of her, well, pocket.

“You have a knife?”

"Yes. Anyway, I realize this isn’t much, but You’re probably going to want to cut your hair.”

“Why?”

“‘Why?’ Velvet, you’ll break your neck like this!”

“...”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid.”

“No, it’s not, come on.”

“... I had a friend, back in Aball. Her name was Niko, and she, um... She actually really liked my hair long.”

“Oh... I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine... I should let go. Niko is dead. No use trying to please her. Not that there was much in the first place...” Velvet lifted up her skirt to reveal a holstered combat knife, complete with finger grooves. “And don’t worry, I have my own knife.”

“Okay, wow. Do you come to school with that?”

“No.” She quickly responded, bunching up her hair. She paused. ‘ _... Why? Why does this matter?_ ’ “... Hey, Eleanor?”

“Yes?”

“About, um... About how short do you think I should go?”

“Hm...”

“Would you like to, you know, do me? Cut my hair, I mean! Not—!”

“Oh, o-of course! And, yes, I’ll cut your hair.” She took the knife, and asked herself what Velvet would look like at each length... ‘... _Yeah... This should work._ ’ “Could you turn around? I should probably even out the front.”

 

\--

 

“...”

“...”

Eleanor looked over her shoulder at the stick wall between her and Velvet. It had been composed of random twigs she found in the woods, some mud, and Velvet’s own hair. Truth be told, the wall wasn’t actually that tall, and frankly, even when sitting down, she could still see Velvet’s face. However, regardless of how you start off your relationship, when you sit naked with somebody in the woods at an uncertain time of night in unfamiliar surroundings, and a surprisingly good survival fire drying your clothes that were hooked up to a rig made up of what other twigs didn’t go into the wall, you really start to bond with them.

“We should probably find like a phone or something soon.” Eleanor started off “You know, so you can let Laphicet know you’re okay.”

Velvet’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought about Laphicet. “Oh no! He’s out on his own! Dammit, I have to go, now!” She said, jolting up

“Velvet, sit down! Please, for the love of God, sit down! Laphi’s going to be fine!”

“He won’t get up for school on time tomorrow!”

“His big— older sister’s missing, I think he has bigger—I mean more important things to worry abounce—dammit, about! I meant to say ‘about!” ‘ _DON’T TURN AROUND! DON’T LOOK! **DON’T. FUCKING. LOOK!**_ ’ After a period of silence, Eleanor heard the sound of grass being displaced, and sighed a sigh of relief, knowing that she’d sat down.

“... Hey, Eleanor? I realize you’re concerned about Laphicet, and I’m glad about that, but... What about your parents?”

“...”

“...”

“... I don’t have any. Not anymore. They’re dead.”

“Oh... I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine; you didn’t do it. Besides, it was a long time ago.”

“I see. If you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t force you to, but...”

“No, it’s okay. My therapist says I actually _should_ talk to more people about what happened, so...”

“And how many people _have_ you talked to?”

“Well, not counting my therapist or the police, after I explain it to you, that’ll be one.”

“I’m not judging.”

“You’d better not,” Eleanor said with a smile, somewhat avoiding the actual talking bit as much as she could “... Anyway... It was about twelve years ago... My home town became part of a warzone. I still remember staring out my window as Hyland troops marched through, and my mother telling me not to look. For a few days, that was it. Just soldiers inhabiting the town. It was a little tense, sure, but nothing came of it. Then Rolance showed up. People started dying as part of a war they didn’t understand, believe in, care about, or things like that. A bunch of Rolance soldiers showed up at my family’s doorstep, and demanded to search the house for any hiding Hyland soldiers, and unfortunately one of them was in there at the time, and badly injured at that. Actually, he still blames himself for what happened next, even though I’ve told him over and over it’s not his fault. Flynn Scifo, his name was,” She was aware she was avoiding the subject matter again, but it was too difficult not to. “My dad stalled the soldiers at the door, while my mom, Flynn and I all hid in the back. Pretty soon, we heard the most damning order: ‘for obstructing justice, we will take you and your family prisoner, regardless of Hyland soldiers’. ‘You can’t do that!’ I thought, but even if I spoke, there wouldn’t be a difference. We knew we had to get out then. The three of us made our way out the back, as they subdued my father. It was a while before we found a safe haven. Unfortunately, said safe haven was the inside of a sewer. And on the way there... my mom... She tripped. She. Tripped. Something so simple, in other times it would have been as innocuous as could be, but here, she tripped right when Flynn and I were making our way into the sewer drain. Then, as we were about to close the drain completely, we heard the Rolance army show up. Their commander, a man named Heldalf, was right there with them, and said they’d been looking for her. We looked over at her, and she gave us this look. This ‘forget about me’ look. And Flynn wouldn’t do it. So I did. He’d been holding onto me with one hand, and holding up the lid with his other. I was balanced on his leg as he was in mid-climb down the ladder, and clearly trying to think of something. I grabbed his hand, and he looked at me in disbelief. I pulled it down slowly, and with a soft scraping sound, the lid closed. Later on, I read about the two of them being publicly executed. Examples, they were apparently, of what happens when you oppose Rolance. I don’t know too many people who survived the whole affair, and truth be told? I don’t want to talk to them. I guess I—” Eleanor’s thought process is cut off when she feels a pair of arms wrap around her, as Velvet came into view.

“... I’m sorry.”

“For what? Like I said, you didn’t do it.”

“Not that. For how much of an idiot I acted like before. I was so stuck in my own sadness, I didn’t think about how I’m not the first one to experience a tragedy.”

“It’s fine. Everyone goes through pain in their lives.” But she still heard Velvet sigh at her own behavior “Tell you what: Buy me a tub of raspberry yogurt, and all will be forgiven.”

“Okay.”

“Wait, what? I was joking.”

“No; why not? They sell them at work, and I get an employee discount.”

“So you’re in retail?”

“Yeah, at that Willmill Mart down the street from Kamoana’s place.”

“Huh. I think I might come and visit some time!”

“At least I’d have _one_ thing to look forward to.”

And with that, they stayed comfortable and silent, with nothing but the sound of the fire crackling under the clothes ringing through the night.

...

...

...

...

...

Velvet’s eyes shot open in sudden realization. Eleanor’s cheeks flushed pink.

“Oh God, we’re naked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally did it, kids. Nudity. And yet this chapter still isn't a lemon. Oh wait, what do you kids call it these days? Smut? Yeah, it's not that.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter could have gone on longer, but I couldn't pass up that ending. Also, I completely lapsed on the day this thing's supposed to update. Turns out it's Saturday, not Sunday. Who'da thunk it?


	4. Velvet's Hard-Maintained Secrets Begin to Spill Like a Waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We continue last chapter's tradition of cracking past Velvet's shell little by little.

Naked was one thing. Naked was awkward. And hey, they weren’t naked anymore! The clothes were dry, and they were On the Road Again, walking back toward home, in complete day light.

“You sure this is the right direction?” Eleanor asked.

“Only kinda. Who knows what kinds of turns the river took.”

Naked was bad. But hungry was worse.

“Velvet!” Eleanor said, grabbing onto Velvet’s arm, and pulling her closer, because when you get stranded with somebody, boundaries get destroyed “Velvet, Velvet, Velvet!”

“What?”

She pointed off into the distance “Look. I think. That’s. A DINER!”

“Oh, thank fuck! Wait, is this gonna be like the ‘gas station?”

“No, I feel it, this one isn’t closed down!”

\--

She was right. There was a proper mom and pop diner, and it was even open, with like three other couples in there at the same time. After getting their menus, the two of them sat in silence, trying to pick something out from the names that came with no pictures or descriptions.

“... I don’t really make time for myself.” Velvet began. Eleanor looked up at her, clearly unsure of what to do with this newfound revelation. “You asked earlier about when I make time for me. And I don’t, honestly.”

“... How does that happen?”

“After school lets out, I drop Laphicet off back home, and then I go right to work. I get about two days off a week, and those days are spent catching up on homework. Mine, and his. Then there’s running the house and everything, and somehow, my days get spent up and I’m right back to the grind.”

“I see... Velvet? What would you like to do? I mean, if you were suddenly given time to be you?”

Velvet looks around their environment. In a deadly serious, yet heavily embarrassed tone, she warned “Don’t you dare laugh.”

“Of course.”

“I... I wanna... mpma pss like zss...”

“... What?”

“A place like this! I want to open up a place like this one! I... I like to cook, you know? And... And I like... talking to people... All evidence to the contrary notwithstanding... I don’t want any big and soulless corporation, but... Just something humble like this. A place where a few people will come in from time to time... We’d get to know each other’s names, and we’d talk while I served them food. It’s cozy, you know?”

Eleanor. Had. Nothing to say. How was she supposed to respond to something like that coming from someone like this?! I mean, in retrospect, this was not the way to react, but it was the way she did. She stared, eyes open wide, as she recalled the girl who literally jumped off a railing to get away from talking to her now saying that talking to people was part of her grand dream. She must have been staring really badly, because the next moment, with an annoyed ‘hmph’, Velvet pulled the menu up in front of her face. “W-wait, Velvet!”

“No.”

“Velvet, come on!”

“No. I knew it would end up like this; that’s why I didn’t want to say anything.”

“Please? I mean, okay, it took me a bit by surprise, after the ledge jump, and the ramp jump on the bike, and actually pretty much everything I’ve ever seen you do besides offer to cook for me once, but Velvet, please listen to me! That actually sounds like a nice dream!”

“Hmph... And that’s exactly what it is. A dream. The problem is that you wake up from dreams.”

“B-but this doesn’t have to stay a fantasy!”

“It’s not an uncommon thing, really. People end up taking different routes in life than they’d anticipated. Lots of times what we end up with is way off the mark, or a pale imitation of what we envisioned in our heads at night. That’s why I’m making sure with every bone in my body that Laphi gets what he needs in order to become the person he dreams about being. Just let it—”

“I refuse to let you fail, Velvet Crowe!” Eleanor slammed her hand on the table, and stood up, in the middle of the diner, bringing attention directly to her. “I don’t care what it takes, because dammit, you deserve to have some happiness in your life! Why is it that you have to give everything up, when you’ve lost so much already?!”

“I could ask the same of you, Ms. White Light.”

“There’s a difference. I chose to live my life in service of others. You—you have a passion, a light in your eyes, and you need to see it Burn! I don’t care what you say, I’m going to see your dreams live, and I’m going to see the joy return to your life! Because that’s what I do, Velvet! That’s my dream! You say it’s impossible for the helper in me and the regular person in me to be one and the same, but I’m sorry to say, they are!”

Velvet stared up at this woman, who clearly meant every word that came out of her mouth, no matter how cheesy or stupid they might sound to others. This woman who, for the first time in she didn’t know how long, actually gave her hope. Putting the menu down, she said “Eleanor, you’re making a scene...”

“...” She smiled at Velvet relenting, and sat down, as the other couples in the diner applauded her.

“Well now,” Said the woman who ran the establishment as she walked up to order for the two of them with an amused smile “That was certainly quite the moment. Can’t remember the last time I got a rousing speech like that from _my_ sweetheart!” She said, raising her voice in a playfully obnoxious way and leaning toward the back to make sure her husband heard the words.

“If you think I got any hot air left, you never seen me in the winter!” He jibed back with no pause.

“Oh, don’t mind him.” She said, turning back to Velvet and Eleanor, both blushing a bit at the implications. “Now, can I take your orders?”

Not looking at the woman, Eleanor ordered “The p-pancakes...” ‘ _D-did she just call me... Velvet’s sweetheart?!_ ’

“Y’want eggs with that?”

“Oh, um, yes, please.”

Without any ability to stop herself, Velvet chimed in “You should have them take the yokes out. They’re bad for your cholesterol.”

“Very well, then. If it’s not too much trouble?”

“It’ll be fine, dear. And for you?” She asked, pointing at Velvet.

“A—a burger...”

Raising an eyebrow, Eleanor asked “So, what was that you were saying about cholesterol?”

The woman voiced again “Mmhm. Just like mine. Good advice, but when it comes to being an example of it?”

\--

After the torture of the whole damn diner treating them like the biggest lovebirds around, Eleanor and Velvet paid for their food and left (“Oh, I can pay the bill.” Eleanor suggested, which quickly turned into a conversation with that insufferable owner about how that’s how a date is supposed to--)

OH MY GOODNESS, PLEASE TELL ME THAT WAS NOT A DATE.

‘ _It’s cool, Velvet_.’ She thought to herself as she and Eleanor walked side-by-side down the road, having been pointed in the direction of town ‘ _It was just a platonic thing, okay? Just some friends going out to get food. Don’t make this move too fast, dammit! You can’t—_ ’

“So, that was what you wanted, huh?”

Pulled from her thoughts, she looked down at Eleanor, smiling back up at her. “Hm?”

“You know, something cozy like that back there! Getting to know your patrons, and maybe even learning a thing or two about their personal lives?”

“Huh... Well... I... I suppose so... And maybe... Aside from the mortification... that was... actully... knduh fffvv...”

“Um... Actually kinda fun? Is that what you just said, or was I mishearing?”

“I—yeah, that’s—that’s what I said...”

“Hm... I think I’d have to agree! It’s also nice to see another side of you, Velvet. Not just grumpy McBadass all the time!”

“So, you think I’m a badass, huh?”

“I can think of no other way to describe the woman who saved me from that wreck. Well, besides ‘my hero’. Thank you, by the way. I mean it.”

“Whatever. It’s no big deal.”

“It is to me. I might be dead if not... for...” Eleanor slowed to a stop. There were plenty of cars that had passed them on the road in the time that they had been walking, but this car, which was pink with purple streaks pulling along the side, decelerated right next to them and halted, as did they at the sight. The window—which seemed to be tinted as much as the law would allow—slowly came down. The driver had large aviator sunglasses on, and was leaning over into the passenger seat in order to look at the two on the sidewalk. Slowly pulling down her sunglasses, she stared wordlessly at them. Upon recognizing her blonde hair and elf ears. Velvet and Eleanor. Without a word. Resumed walking.

“Hey, guys, wait!” Shouted Magilou

\--

With Eleanor sitting in the front seat, and Velvet in the back, they drove back to town, explaining to Magilou the events that had transpired (leaving out the nudity). As Magilou reflected on how she disposed of a beer bottle last night as she was heading out of town, she laughed at how everything turned out.

“So, Magilou,” Eleanor began “Why exactly were you out of town in the first place?”

“If I tell you, will you agree to join my menagerie?”

“No.”

“It’s in the trunk. It’s something so amazing, it’ll BLOW YOUR MINDS WHEN YOU SEE IT!”

Velvet, taking a shot in the dark, asked “Izit fireworks?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“... Who the hell asked you anyway?”

“What’s so special about some fireworks?”

“If I tell you—”

“No.”

“Then beg for it.”

“No.”

Magilou opened her mouth to make another offer

“No.”

“I’ll be honest, that was probably the best response, given the next words out of my mouth. Regardless, you will see the fruits of my labor once the Night of Promenade arrives!”

“ _I’ll_ be honest,” Velvet says “For the first night since the fire, I’m scared.”

“The fire?” Magilou asks, as Eleanor’s face reflects absolute shock that Velvet would joke about something like that. “Whatever. You two lost your school stuff in the water, right?”

“Along with pretty much everything in my possession.”

“You travel really light, don’t you?”

“Do you not?”

“Oh, deary, no! I need to keep my magic props, _my toys_ , Bienfu—”

From the trunk, the sound of “MS. MAGILOU, PLEASE LET ME OUT!” is heard

“Shut up, Red Foo, you know what you did!” She then reassures her friends that, “He knows what he did.”

Velvet pipes up “When you say ‘toys’, do you mean—?”

“Velvet, do I genuinely seem like the kind of person who doesn’t own multiple dildos to you? Do I?”

“. . .”

“Regardless, I have so much stuff I actually get surprised by some of the stuff I find in my room sometimes! Oh, Eleanor, I have that hammer you loaned me!”

She slowly rotates her head to look at Magilou. “... Magillanica Lou Mayvin, what are you talking about?”

“I’m going to assume you’re actually speaking to Magilou, firstly—”

“PLEEEEAAASE do not start this again!”

“Secondly, I’m talking about the squeaky one with the little tiger on it!”

“. . . . . . . ! Wait a minute! You have my Tiger Festival hammer?! I thought I lost it!”

“No, you gave it to me.”

“IN THE FIRST GRADE, MAGILOU!!”

“And I have it in the trunk, ready to give it back to you, any time. Right now, however, I’d like to return to my original point. It’s about 11AM, and we’ve missed half the school day. Wanna just run around town today instead?”

“WHAT?!”

“Ooooookay, I shoulda been ready for that. Anyway, there’s nothing worthwhile happening, and I dunno about you two, but I got about two days left before I get a truancy notice.”

“IT’S THE FIRST QUARTER, MAGILOU!!”

Magilou pushes the play button on her stereo, and the music blares “WEEE’RE SHAAAAAMELEEEEEEEEEESS!” Magilou then adds “SORRY, CAN’T HEAR YOU KINKSHAMING ME OVER THE SOUND OF THE ASHCORP!”

“Kinkshaming?!”

Velvet notes “Actually, speaking of kinks, she probably skipped a day to get one of those dildos in the mail...”

“Yes, and that one is special, it’s called the Guardian!”

“You named them?”

“You don’t know much about me, do you?”

“You seem like the kind of person _nobody_ knows much about.”

“And that’s one thing ya know about me that others can’t seem to grasp! Anyway, there’s a bus system if anybody needs to go to school, but cool kids like Velvet and I are gonna go to the mall, cuz the Van Eltia Arcade’s free today, and old man Aifread who runs the place really doesn’t care if he catches you skippin!”

Eleanor glared. “Magilou...”

\--

Velvet and Eleanor sat back and watched as Magilou battled it out on Dance Dance Revolution with some little pirate hat-wearing girl whose name is apparently Chat.

“What is she even doing?” Eleanor asked

“Losing.” Velvet answered “I don’t even understand that, Chat’s legs are so short, she has to like do a full strength jump in order to hit any of the buttons. Look. She just fucking dabbed. Isn’t she the owner’s granddaughter? Taking her on was a mistake.”

“That’s why she did it.”

“Of course. I’m surprised, though. I never thought you’d be so tight with somebody like Magilou.”

“She used to be a lot milder, and even timid. I can see through the idiotic façade, to the real her, you know?”

“Beneath the idiocy, there isn’t just more idiocy?”

“I mean, there is, but yes, there’s more to it than that.”

“Hey, Eleanor?” Magilou asked, “Could you do me a favor?” She slapped five quarters into Eleanor’s hand “Could you go and make that kid shut up for me?” She finished, pointing back at Chat. Sighing, Eleanor acquiesced. After she was out of earshot, Magilou leaned back against a railing, and said to Velvet “It’s kind of interesting, you know? Haven’t seen you fight, but still. Talking to the Shepherd’s greatest student is kind of fun...!” She gave Velvet a devious smile, as the black-haired girl whipped her head around to look at her in a mixture of shock and rage.


	5. Does Velvet Even HAVE Secrets Anymore?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> https:// fanfictionwriter101.tumblr .com/post/176027982634
> 
> We enter our situation with Velvet lying down and taking a nap under a tree. Suddenly, she is approached by another.
> 
> ELEANOR: Velvet.
> 
> VELVET: ...
> 
> ELEANOR: Velvet, get up.
> 
> VELVET: Huh?
> 
> ELEANOR: The story's not over.
> 
> VELVET: What? It's not like canceled or anything?
> 
> ELEANOR: Nope. I think the author just got unmotivated or something.
> 
> VELVET: I... I can't complain about that, but it's still a bit of an underwhelming reason for a hiatus.
> 
> ELEANOR: It is, but there's nothing we can do about it; it happened already. Anyway, the plot's about to start ramping up.
> 
> VELVET: About time. Wasn't this supposed to be a oneshot?
> 
> ELEANOR: It happens.
> 
> VELVET: Whatever. Let's get moving, then.

Much to Velvet’s own chagrin, it wasn’t until the next day, Friday, at school that she got to talk to Magilou. When she did, of course...

“YOU!” She shouted as soon as Magilou became visible in the crowd. She grabbed the shorter girl by the collar, and shoved her against a locker, pinning her down with her forearm and breathing heavily in anger and paranoia

“Well, while I might have some overlap in exhibitionism and submissiveness, I hardly think we’ll actually get away with this. Still, I’m game if you are.”

“Shut up! What do you know about the Shepherd?!”

“Shep...herd...? Pretty sure we live in a first world country, Velvet, the only Shepard I know of is the character I chose to romance absolutely everyone with in a video game. Now, if you could,” She pushes Velvet off of her just enough to get Ms. Crowe’s arm off of her chest, and then she manages to duck downward, out of her shirt, revealing a second shirt that read ‘gotcha’ on it. “But if it’s Artorius you’re talking about... He used to come by Melchior’s house all the time.”

“Who the hell is Melchior?!”

“A guy who used to take care of me for a while for some reason. Lived in his house, went to school, suffered under his iron fist. It’s over now, like Sherry.”

“Like what?”

“Seriously, am I ever gonna find a Kenji Hayashida fan?”

“Stay. On. Topic!”

“Right, right, whatever. Anyway, Arty used to show up at Melky-Holmes’s house and talk politics and other shit I didn’t care about. Revolution, weird rituals, and all the usual stuff.”

“...”

“Oh? So you know that much then?”

“... Some of the things he said near the end...” Velvet flashes back to herself standing in front of Artorius, amid a village in flames. She grimaces at the memory “Wait... why did you even bring it up?! Why bring up Artorius?!”

“Because there are some people who know Arty’s dead. And among them, some don’t particularly believe it was a mistake. Nobody sets a village on fire, and then gets burned to death in his own blaze. Even stranger, the only survivors are people who’d have motive to kill him. Y’know. In a heat of the moment type thing, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“They’re _what_?!”

“Oh calm down. The village was burned to a crisp, wasn’t it? All the evidence is gone. All likelihood, you’ll come out of this just fine. And who knows? Maybe you and that girlfriend of yours can settle down and start a family!”

“E-Eleanor is _not_ my girlfriend!!”

“...” Magilou says absolutely nothing as she peers over Velvet’s shoulder. Velvet realizes what’s wrong, and immediately whips her head around to see of course, Eleanor Hume standing there, not sure what to do.

“U-uh...”

“I never mentioned Eleanor’s name, for what it’s worth.”

“. . .”

“Anyway, it’s been fun, kiddos, but I got a class to get to.” She sort of shimmies in-between Velvet and Eleanor “‘Scuse me...” and leaves them alone.

“...” Eleanor is the first to break the silence “So... Is there something going on there?”

“... No, it’s just... Just Magilou being Magilou; I’ll deal with it later.”

“Well, you certainly acclimated to that fast.”

“I guess. Anyway, is there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Um...” Eleanor thinks back to the night before. She lied awake in bed, and found herself thinking about that woman at the diner. She called her Velvet’s sweetheart... And that didn’t sound too bad, honestly. And whatever that little exchange was that Magilou had with Velvet just now certainly didn’t help. “I was just... wondering if you were going to go to the da—”

“ELEANOOOOOOOR!” Came a boy’s voice and a guitar strum from seemingly nowhere, or perhaps the pits of hell.

Eleanor’s face falls flat. She breathes in a deep breath, and lets it all out as she turns around to see the face of a boy named “Ivar! How are you?” Eleanor asks

“Oh I’m fine, but I would be,” He strums his guitar again “Honoooooored, if you would come to the dance with me!” He gets ready to start playing a song, when Velvet reaches forward and puts her hand in the way of the strings. “H-hey!”

Velvet sighs “Please. For everyone’s sake, learn to read body-language.”

“What are you talking about?! You know nothing of a lady’s desires!”

“What?”

Eleanor decides to step forward “Ivar, I’m sure this would have been a wonderful song, but we really must get to class. Besides, I’m not sure I’m even going to that dance.”

“W-well, we could always get dinner some time!”

“I wish you luck with women in the future!” She says, turning around to get to class as Velvet walks away with her.

“That was something.”

“...”

“It seemed like this was pretty common for you.”

“I... may have had some experience with this kind of thing every once in a while.”

“Got it. So basically all the boys in the school have crushes on you.”

“Th-that is not true! Eizen doesn’t! Rokurou doesn’t!”

“Anybody else you can name off the top of your head?”

“L-Luke! Um... There’s Asbel! ... Jude! Uh...”

“So like all the other ones have asked you out, huh?”

“No! No, not all of them! Some of them I don’t talk to!”

“Oh I get it. Either they want nothing to do with you, or they want nothing more than to do you.”

“Um... A majority of them fall into that category, yes.”

“Not surprising,” Velvet says, turning to her classroom “The really friendly pretty girl gets asked out a lot.”

“Yes, yes,” Eleanor says to nobody in particular after Velvet enters the classroom and leaves her alone. About halfway down the hallway, she stops. “... Oh my God, she just called me pretty!” And against her own will, or at least what her will would have seemed like a week ago... she smiled “She thinks I’m pretty! Okay, calm down. Next time, I’m not gonna get interrupted! Next time I’ll definitely ask Velvet out!”

 

\--

 

After school, Velvet waited outside by Magilou’s car, leaning up against the side.  Soon, she sees Magilou saunter out the front gate, talking away with Principal Laliah about something that was probably no good. She’d wait. She asked Eleanor to take Laphicet to her house for the night, so she had the whole day free. Before she got her chance to talk to Magilou, however, Rokurou ran up to her from outside her line of sight, because that’s what happens when you have a one-track mind, Velvet.

“Velvet! Great timing!”

“What the—?! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Hm? Ah yeah, sorry, I guess that _was_ kinda sudden. Anyway, I need your help with something.”

“Is it quick?”

“That depends on you. Anyway, I need you to fight me.”

“... I don’t understand—how could you possibly _need_ me to fight you?”

“Well, there’s an instructor from another dojo who’s in town right now, her name’s Sonya Rolando. I asked her to teach me what she knows, but she said she’d only do it if I could prove I was worth her time in the first place. I showed her some of my moves, right? But you know what she said?”

\-- FLASHBACK TIIIIIIII~ME!

_“I don’t care about your demonstrations! I take in complete novices! It’s not about the skill, it’s about the spirit!”_

\-- FLASHBACK’S OOOOOOOVEEEEEEE~R!

“... So, you think that if I spar you, you’ll get to show her your spirit, and then Leia’s mom will teach you her style.”

“Yes!”

“I’m surprised. I’d have thought you would be all about Rangetsu style.”

“I am! But a style that wastes its time in stagnation is a style that dies! Or worse... It only lives on in _tournament fighting_...” He genuinely shivered at the notion

“Right. Well, I’m busy right now. Ask Eizen.”

“I can’t! Eizen’s over at the toy store, trying to scour up some stupid nor dolls for his sister!”

“Too bad. I’m waiting to talk to Magilou.”

“Oh, um... I don’t think that’s happening.”

“Hm?”

Rokurou points at Magilou, about a block away, facing away from her, and getting in Lailah’s car passenger seat. “The hell?!”

“You should run. Or, I could call her!”

As Velvet breaks out into a sprint, Rokurou whips out his phone, and into the contacts section, touching Magilou’s name immediately. Velvet, despite her best efforts, knows she’s not going to get to the car in time. Looking back at Rokurou, he wears an amused expression and puts his phone on speaker, so we can all hear Magilou singing,

“ _—oooooooock! Cheesy on my peeny and some sauce-a on my balls! Leave a message after the beeeee~p!_ ”

“...”

“I probably should have mentioned, Magilou is very prone to not charging her phone.” Beep.  “Also that.” Rokurou says as he now hangs up.

“...”

“... So, uh, Velvet.”

“...”

“... Are ya busy?”

“...”

“...”

\--

Here in the middle of the Heavenly Steppes parking lot, Rokurou Rangetsu stands across from Velvet Crowe, under the watchful eye of one Sonya Rolando, as they prepare to—

“Why the parking lot?” Sonya’s daughter, Leia asks, deciding to sit in on the affair.

“Ah,” Rokurou recalls “We couldn’t use the track, because the team was in the middle of a meet.”

“Oh.”

“Hey!” Velvet demands attention back to herself “I’ve got work in an hour, so let’s wrap this up!”

With a grin, Rokurou says “My pleasure...!”

“Okay then!” Begins Sonya “You’ll stop when one of you two is incapacitated, or I tell you I’ve seen enough! Start!”

“Watch, and I’ll show you my Rangetsu style!” He shouts, charging forward faster than any would have thought

“Hn,” Velvet vocalizes, a smile managing to form on her lips “Now, FACE THE LORD OF CALAMITY!!”

As the two combatants charged at one another, Leia was taken aback by what she’d just heard. “The... Lord of...?”

Sonya reminds her to “Pay attention, Leia! You could learn from this!”

“R-right! Yes, ma’am!”

Rokurou is the first to strike, pulling one hand back to punch her in the face, and drawing Velvet’s attention. When he sees her raise her hand to nose-level, he kicks out his leg. Velvet, however, jumps above the sweep, kicks her left leg out, gets blocked by the hand that is still in front of Rokurou, and proceeds to jab him in the face. As he stumbles back, he hears Velvet say

“Remember this: Plans must be solid, and reactions flexible.”

Rokurou dons a rather shocked and somewhat distressed expression, and he pauses ‘ _What did she just...?_ ’ He is rewarded with a foot thrust directly at the side of his face, driving him to the ground, before he rebounded up with a backflip

Velvet continues “Never waver once your sword is drawn! Control your feelings to control the tide of battle!”

‘ _There it is again! This isn’t a coincidence! It can’t be!_ ’ As Velvet closes in for an uppercut to the jaw, Rokurou leans back to dodge, grabs her striking hand, grabs her other hand, and pulls them both behind her back “Hold on just a moment! Those sayings of yours... Do you know Shigure Rangetsu?”

“A relative of yours?”

“On of my older brothers. I’m taking that as a no? Then let’s try a friend of his: What do you know about Artorius Collbrande?”

“What the hell? First Magilou, now you?!” She throws her head back and Rokurou dodges the attack. Changing her avenues, she reaches a leg back and sweeps one of his out from under him, moving all her weight so as to push them both onto the ground. As Rokurou reaches to catch himself, she wrenches both of her hands free, making sure she didn’t bruise her shoulders on the way down. Rolling off of him, she gets right back on him in a straddling position, prepping to ground and pound him. Rokurou puts his guard up for the upcoming onslaught, and after a few punches, he grabs Velvet’s incoming fist, and grabs the other one soon afterward.

“Hm, your punches so far have only found home once; I’m getting the sense you’re a leg tech.” She moves to headbutt Rokurou, and he dodges to the left “Then again, maybe you’re just all around berserker.” He yanks her hands down to her sides, grabs her arms, and pushes her off of him. He rolls back up, and notices Velvet hasn’t quite found her footing yet. He runs over to deliver a stomp, and... Nothing. He’s pulled back by his collar, and he hears a deep, constantly menacing voice.

“Rokurou,” Says the voice he recognizes as belonging to Eizen. “You’re coming with me. You too, Velvet.”

“I don’t think you understand the situation as it stands.”

“I don’t give a damn is the situation as it stands.” He turns to look at Sonya and Leia “That all right with you two?”

Sonya responds “That’s fine with me. I’ve seen all I need to see. Young man, I’ll have Leia here contact you later on.”

Rokurou exclaims “Yes! Awesome!”

Leia, sounding slightly distracted, pipes up “H-hey, Rokurou, could you call me later in the day?”

“Sure. Wait, I have your phone number?”

Getting a little annoyed, she says “I personally put it in your phone. Remember from the group project we did literally last week? You spilled hot ramen on Reid’s neck, and he didn’t react?”

Eizen sighs “I seriously doubt Rokurou remembers what he did two days ago if it doesn’t involve fighting, let alone last week. Regardless, I need you two, because we’ve just once again been pulled into the shenanigans of Magilou’s Menagerie.”

Rokurou’s eyes widen. His life flashes before his eyes. He sees a vision of himself with what appears to be a face tattoo in Sengoku period clothing, fighting demons while wielding two giant swords. He’s not really sure where that last one came from. “Eizen... Why? I thought we were done with that...”

“Seems that Magilou heard a conversation between Eleanor and myself. Eleanor recommended that I buy my sister some nor dolls for her birthday. Magilou proceeded to jet out while we were still talking, and buy up all the dolls in the city. Now she’s holding them hostage. She won’t tell me where they are, and she won’t give me any of them unless I perform for her.”

“Okay, firstly, where did she even get the money to do that?”

“Apparently she does magic acts at night. Also something about stealing Milky Holmes’s money, but Milky Holmes is a game and anime franchise, so unless she’s pilfering Bushiroad’s revenue from one specific title they hold, then it’s code for something else, and I don’t entirely care.”

“Understandable. And secondly; how do I figure into this.”

“Misery loves company.”

“So I guess that explains you, too, Velvet.”

“...”

“Velvet?” Looking next to him, he understood why there was no response. Velvet probably couldn’t hear her on account of not being there, because that’ll kinda do it. “Oh great, and we’re repeating jokes.”

 

\--

 

Once at she got showered, filled the void of having nothing to do with just getting her homework done, and made lunch, Velvet Crowe was off to work.

At the store, she quickly managed to get annoyed with multiple customers in a row asking her to go to the back to check things that they didn’t have, was only conceivably in one of four back-up u-boats that a specific one of her co-workers never cared to fucking organize, or that no way in hell was she gonna get for them, because doing so would involve getting a forklift in order to bring down a pallet of food that was ridiculously not organized by type, all so she could put the pallet down onto a storage floor that was dangerously overcrowded, in order to get a small product that was at the bottom of a pallet that was wrapped up, and otherwise filled with things that didn’t need to go out

As a result of all of this, getting what work she’d had piled up on a ridiculous, unsafe u-boat that could tip over at any time, but that she had to deal with because this is how the company wants you to do it, took far longer than she would have liked.

But you know what?

You know just what?

She got even more agitated, and this time it wasn’t even one of her customers. It was a girl she went to school with. See, a co-worker of hers, Leia Rolando, happened to show up for the beginning of her shift, which was about an hour shorter than Velvet’s, because reasons. And then she asked her a question.

“Velvet?” Leia began “Um... You said something earlier, and it kind of caught me off guard... First off, you’re from Aball right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Oh...”

“You know, there’s a reason I don’t like to bring that up with people. How’d you even find out, anyway?”

“... You called yourself ‘the Lord of Calamity’ earlier.”

Velvet, not realizing this fact, donned a shocked expression. “I... what?”

“I figured as much. You got like really into the fight, and you just let yourself go in the heat of the moment.”

“...”

“I remember reading the news about the Aball Tragedy... They said a church official, Artorius Collbrande, was out of town at the time, learning new ways to bring salvation to the people, and thus ‘free them from the Lord of Calamity’. But no one’s seen him since. I figured ‘Lord of Calamity’ was just another way of saying ‘the devil’s influences’ back then. You... You don’t seem the type to just adopt that name because you think it’s cool.”

“Leia.”

“Velvet... Artorius... He’s not going to be seen again, is he? He was ‘battling the Lord of Calamity’. You read that, too, didn’t you? And so, you took that name as your own. Did you...? Did you kill Artorius?”

“... No. I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s a name that sounded imposing, so I shouted it out, as you referred to it, ‘in the heat of the moment.”

“... I see... Right, well, we’ve got work to do.”

“Exactly. And Leia?

“Hm?”

“About Aball. Just drop it. It’s more complicated than you need to worry about.”

“... Right...”

 

\--

 

Okay, so maybe work today was more unnerving than usual. Still, it wouldn’t be that bad? She could just pick up Laphicet and go back home.

Ah crap. She didn’t factor in the incident that totaled... her... motorcycle...

Looking out onto the street in front of the store, Velvet wondered if the girl waiting for her truly had magic powers. How else was she everywhere Velvet simultaneously did and did not need her? Whatever the reason, Velvet Crowe stepped away from the store exit, and grabbed the back seat handle...

Of Magilou’s car.

Oh, she’d have taken the front passenger seat, but Eleanor was already there. And much to Velvet’s surprise, once she opened the back door, so was Laphicet. Oh, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?

“Hi, Velvet!” Laphicet greeted Velvet, and she immediately understood why he was here. She’d have to watch her behavior around her little brother. Magilou, you conniving, cunning bastard.

“Hey, Laphi! How was Eleanor’s place?”

As Magilou started driving off, Laphicet paused for just the briefest second, almost completely missable, before saying “I had a blast! Eleanor has this cute little dog; he’s just like Orthie and Russ were!”

“Heh. Guess that means he’s easily distracted.”

Eleanor comes to her dog’s defense “He might be, but he’s got heart, and that’s all that matters to me!”

“Okay, I’ll concede on this one.” So, realizing she was feeling just a bit too good for a second, Velvet remembered to get to the real question here. “Magilou. What are you doing here?”

“Well, it was about time for you to get off work, so I decided to come pick you up.”

“And you knew this, how?”

“One of your co-workers has been my friend since 4th grade. You know Leia, right?”

‘ _Her again._ ’ “Yeah. I’m surprised she’s willing to put up with someone like you.”

“Oh, people don’t give her enough credit; she’s willing to get past a lot of a person’s flaws if she sees the good in them.”

“Although,” Eleanor said “I have to say, I’m surprised, Velvet. To think you’d actually go along with being part of Magilou’s Menagerie.”

Velvet blinked twice in rapid succession. “I’d what?”

Laphicet immediately brightened up “I can’t wait to see the performance! Magilou was telling me all about it!”

... Fuck you, Magillanica Lou Mayvin. Velvet sighed. Her laundry list of things to do was getting too long, and frankly, the talk she now understood she’d have topped any of the issues she had with Magilou roping her into her antics. So she decided to take care of the first one.

“Hey, Laphicet? You really liked that dog, huh?”

He nodded his head vigorously, and said “Yeah!”

“You wanna see him again?”

“Uh-huh!”

“How about tonight?”

“Huh?” Laphicet and Eleanor asked in unison

“You don’t mind, right? Eleanor?”

“W-well, no. Laphicet was a delight, and I’d be glad to have him over any time.”

“Cool. I hope you’ll manage to feel the same way about me, because I kinda wanna spend the night, too.”

“O-oh! Is that so? Well, the more the merrier!”

Magilou joins in “And Magi makes four!”

“Why you?”

“I just didn’t wanna be left out!”

“... Sleep on the couch.”

“You wound me.”

“Sleep on the couch or don’t sleep at all.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll take it.”

 

\--

 

After Velvet had made dinner for everyone from the random assorted foods in Eleanor’s kitchen that Eleanor didn’t even know could be turned into a single dish, they all got ready for bed.

“U-um... So, Eleanor...” Velvet asked, because she really hadn’t thought of it up to this point. “Where... Where should Laphicet and I sleep?”

“Well... I figured you two could sleep in my room. There’s not exactly a lot of room on my bed, but...”

“Actually...” Laphicet says “I think I’ll take the smaller couch in the living room.”

Magilou pipes up “Ooooh, a sleepover with Aunt Magi! We’re gonna have so much fun! We can tell each other stories, and talk about our rotten parents, and do each other’s hair! It’ll be great!”

“What was that second one?”

Velvet cuts in “Are you sure that’s gonna be okay, Laphi?”

“I’ll be fine.” He sounded a bit... off... He’s sounded off for a while now.

 

\--

 

Regardless, Eleanor showed Velvet to her bedroom. “So, I mean... I-I can get out a sleeping bag that I have for camping trips, if you’d like.”

“We need to talk.”

“... Hm?”

“About Laphicet.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You know what’s wrong. He paused before when I asked him about the time he spent here. He’s sounded like there’s something he’s thinking about all night... And on top of that, he mentioned Orthie and Russ. Those were dogs we knew back in Aball. ‘Just like Orthie and Russ were’. Eleanor, can you explain to me why he’d use the past tense to refer to dogs that are theoretically still alive?”

“...”

“What did you two talk about earlier?”

“... Laphicet... He’s a lot stronger than you give him credit for...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter addresses my issue with Laphicet being out of focus, because yes, I had a problem with that. Also, it places Leia in a far more prominent position than I'd imagined she'd have, but I dunno, I guess favoritism opens many doors, Ed-boys.
> 
> Also, what do you mean, the description of the irritation at Velvet's job was oddly specific? Let me have this; I have residual rage, and I need to vent.


End file.
